They told you the smaller vegetables were sweeter. They told you the big ones were tough. But at the farmers' market, things are different. (You're going to need a bigger tote.)

A battle-hardened veteran of market haggling holds up an eight-inch long zucchini. “How much is this one?”

“One dollar,” my brother Henry—who’s been growing and selling his vegetables at the Evanston Farmers' Market for over two decades—replies.

She pulls out one the size of a baseball bat. “And this one?”

“One dollar.”

She waggles the eight-incher. “One dollar?”

She brandishes the bat. “One dollar?”

“Yep.”

Her stern countenance melts fleetingly into an expression of barely suppressed glee. Stupid American farmer flits across her brow.

But as the veteran rummages through the zucchini crate for the largest ones she can find, Henry is unfazed. He's thrilled to be selling these squashes to someone who understands that the larger squash are the tasty, tender squash.

That's right: Contrary to what just about every cookbook, website, and “how to choose” blurb about vegetables you’ve ever read says, bigger is usually better.

A complex equation

Bigger = Better isn't as simple as it sounds. There are variables here, including vegetable variety, growing conditions, farming practices, and the expertise of the person harvesting.

The cultivars (varieties) the farmer plants have a fairly straightforward impact on vegetable size and quality: A storage carrot such as the Bolero will give you a gigantic carrot just as crunchy, tasty and sweet as the diminutive Thumbelina. And both of these will be tastier than the normal-size industrial carrot found in most grocery stores, which has been bred for uniform size, shape, and color rather than for taste and nutrition.

One big caveat in Bigger = Better: growing conditions and farming practices. Heavy inputs of water and fertilizer produce big vegetables in the same way that steroid injections produce big muscles. And pumped-up produce that grew big and fast because it had lots of irrigation and fertilizer is, quite literally, watered down. This produce, which is generally what you get from large scale farms, will never be as tasty or nutritious as that grown in a healthy soil with little or no irrigation or fertilizer.

Autumn carrots actually grow sweeter as they grow bigger

But good varieties and good growing practices don't mean anything if the farmer or farm-worker doesn't know how to harvest for maximum size and flavor. On most large commercial farms, the farmer isn't out there biting into the radishes to see if they’re pithy, or tasting the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-inch okra pods to determine at what size they get stringy (or not). That fact, together with a wholesale market demanding uniform sizes, means that workers are told to “pick radishes one inch in diameter,” or “2-inch okra,” or “zucchini between four and six inches.” These are the sizes of vegetables we see 90% of the time, and so we naturally look at larger vegetables with some suspicion. And it is true that in some cases larger-than-normal vegetables will be tough, stringy, or bitter. But most of the time, if you are buying vegetables from a knowledgable farmer who grows them in a healthy soil without heavy inputs of fertilizer or water, Bigger = Better—sometimes mind-blowingly so.

The Bigger = Better List

Beets

You can judge a beet or turnip by its cover to a large extent. If a large beet has the same shiny color, round shape, and smooth skin as its smaller cousins, then you can be sure it is just as sweet and tender. If the large beets are duller in color, oddly shaped, or lumpy, then they may be over-mature, in which case they won’t be as sweet or tender as the smaller ones. Ask the farmer if the large beets are from the same planting as the small beets. If they are, there's a good chance that they’ll be tastier and more tender than the smaller ones, because they were healthier and stronger, and simply outgrew their smaller cousins.

Buying beets that have been in storage? You should also choose big over small. A small beet has a higher surface area to volume ratio, and it will dry out and get soft and pithy more quickly than a big beet.

Broccoli

Broccoli loves cool, moist weather, so if it’s been cool, and the broccoli at the farmers market is enormous, do not be afraid of it! Since broccoli is a flower bud, size is not necessarily related to maturity. You can find a broccoli head the diameter of a silver dollar that is flowering and thus over-mature, losing flavor and nutrition with every passing minute. Or you can find a head of broccoli that is the diameter of a dinner plate with tight buds and a massive stem that is sweet and tender. This giant broccoli is at the perfect eating stage, so when you see one, buy it.

Carrots

There’s almost no relationship between size and flavor in carrots. The size depends on the variety of carrot and the growing conditions, and flavor is much more related to where, when, and how the carrots were grown. Carrots prefer cooler weather, so if you live in a area with long, hot summers, you’ll have a hard time finding locally grown carrots that are very sweet in the summer no matter what their size. But in the cool, shorter days of autumn, you can get enormous carrots without any loss in flavor or texture. In fact, those fall carrots will grow sweeter as they grow bigger.

Photo by Charles Masters, food styling by Suzanne Lenzer

Chard

A cool, wet season can produce monster chard that is crisp and sweet, while a hot, dry season can result in petite bunches of chard that are brittle and bitter. The best way to tell if chard is good is to look at the outer edges of the leaves. No matter their size, they should be smooth and glossy, not cracked and rough. The same rule applies to most greens, including kale and mustard, as well as lettuce and other salad greens.

Leeks and Scallions

Size doesn't matter with these members of the allium family, which will get bigger and bigger throughout the season, with no change in flavor or texture. (Note: Green onions are often called scallions, but a green, or immature, onion will eventually form a bulb, whereas a true scallion won’t.)

Summer Squashes (Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, Zephyr, Pattypan)

Size does matter in the world of summer squashes, but not as you might imagine. The large ones are good for stuffing and sautéing, and the medium ones are great for grilling, and in many other recipes from soup to cake. And the small ones? Well, those cute, little, itsy-bitsy squash are immature and will rapidly go soft and moldy—which may be a blessing in disguise, because they often have a harsh, slightly metallic taste.
If the squash have been harvested recently, chances are that the large 12-inch one is just a few days older than the medium 6-inch one. It will be just as sweet and tender, and you get twice as much squash for your money—just ask those battle-hardened market veterans.